sintzu wrote:It's a shame Toei won't just do it themselves.
Kai-ing DB would probably bring it down to 100 episodes (cutting it down from 133 canon episodes) so surely they'd make their money back. How much would such a small project even cost them ?
To be perfectly honest, with the experience of Kai-ing DB myself and seeing Milkman's even better removal with Recut, I can see Toei reducing it down to 90 or even 80 episodes thanks to much more thorough sound editing, being able to end episodes at any point, and introducing new shots to cover up any continuity issues.
But as Robo said, the main expense would come through the sound. Outside of bringing the cast back together (and finding replacements for those we've lost since 1989 who didn't appear in Z), there's cropping the entire thing in 4:3, colour-balancing it, re-doing all of the sound effects in stereo, and having Sumitomo come in to re-score all of it, not to mention commissioning thirty closing themes for the Pilaf Arc alone.
There's also marketing. While Dragon Ball is roughly the same amount of episodes as the Buu arc was in the anime, it's handicapped by the fact that it isn't Z, while Buu has the advantage of being adjacent to the two movies and Super as far as chronology is concerned.
Sumitomo in particular touches on one of the reasons why I decided to start T1C in the first place, which is how Dragon Ball sounds. I never watched DBZ all that much as a kid nor did I delve into dub tapes and stuff so I have no attachment to either Z-Kikuchi or Falcouner. However I watched the original show a
lot, and for me Toei and Funimation can pry Nadolny and Kikuche from my cold dead hands before they replace them for their own Kai take on Dragon Ball. Themes like, well, the
main theme,
Shenron and that travel theme and
King Piccolo just make the show for me.
The one upshot however would be Schemmel redoing his Teen Goku lines, which are so cringey now it almost brings the 23rd Tournament to a screeching halt!